The UK is about to stop producing any electricity from burning coal – ending its 142-year reliance on the fossil fuel.
The country’s last coal power station, at Ratcliffe-on-Soar, finishes operations on Monday after running since 1967.
This marks a major milestone in the country’s ambitions to reduce its contribution to climate change. Coal is the dirtiest fossil fuel producing the most greenhouse gases when burnt.
Minister for Energy Michael Shanks said: “We owe generations a debt of gratitude as a country.”
The UK was the birthplace of coal power, and from tomorrow it becomes the first major economy to give it up.
“It’s a really remarkable day, because Britain, after all, built her whole strength on coal, that is the industrial revolution,” said Lord Deben – the longest serving environment secretary.
The first coal-fired power station in the world, the Holborn Viaduct power station, was built in 1882 in London by the inventor Thomas Edison – bringing light to the streets of the capital.
From that point through the first half of the twentieth century, coal provided pretty much all of the UK’s electricity, powering homes and businesses.
In the early 1990s, coal began to be forced out of the electricity mix by gas, but coal still remained a crucial component of the UK grid for the next two decades.
In 2012, it still generated 39% of the UK’s power.
But the science around climate change was growing – it was clear that the world’s greenhouse gas emissions needed to be reduced and as the dirtiest fossil fuel, coal was a major target.
In 2008, the UK established its first legally binding climate targets and in 2015 the then-energy and climate change secretary, Amber Rudd, told the world the UK would be ending its use of coal power within the next decade.
Dave Jones, director of global insights at Ember, an independent energy think tank, said this really helped to “set in motion” the end of coal by providing a clear direction of travel for the industry.
—BBC